AAF to Jax: Get Your Act Together!

[thelakelander]

That title describes what this quote from an AAF rep (about tying the rail system into Jax) sounds like....

The industry panel took a local view, though, by asking which investments would promote Jacksonville the best. Downtown public transit connectivity was considered one of the missing puzzle pieces.

It’s one of the things holding back All Aboard Florida, a privately funded high-speed rail initiative that will connect Orlando with Miami. Jacksonville is not yet included in that plan.

The initiative is first targeting cities that have local routes in place to take riders from high-speed rail stations to their final destinations, said Husein Cumber, executive vice president of Corporate Development for the Florida East Coast Railway, the parent company of All Aboard Florida.

Orlando is one such city. It has been investing in its public

transportation system for decades.

To compete, Jacksonville would have to have routes in place so a rider could get from a high-speed rail station to places like EverBank Field for a game, to the airport, San Marco or Jacksonville Beach, Cumber said.

“If a person can’t easily get off our system and move to their end destination, when we do our ridership studies, the numbers are not going to come out as strongly,” he said.

FEC is investing $2 billion to create the first phase of All Aboard Florida, Cumber said. The project is viable because population growth is now headed away from suburbs and towards urban centers.

“When we think about an intra-city rail system, we need to have that density pick up, so that we can have a population to target and to pick up as riders,” Cumber said.

full article: http://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/showstory.php?Story_id=543684

[JeffreyS]

I think we could look at deals that start with the skyway to Downtown, SanMarco, Riverside, Everbank and Faux trolly service to St. Augustine Beach. I would like to see this happen where both sides commit first.

[spuwho]

This is the same message they gave to Tampa. It spawned all sorts of angst in the biz press there.

2 ways to look at it I guess.

They have alot to risk in investment so they want the public investment to be complimentary.

On the flip side, the Liberty Caucus crowd would say that aligning public resources to support a private entity like AAF is a subsidy.

I see it like an airport. Airlines are private entities but rely on complimentary public investments to make them successful. That is why you don't have airports for each airline.

If JTA does align with AAF in the future and COJ embraces TOD around planned stations, it will truly be complimentary.

I hope we "get it".

[coredumped]

If JTA does align with AAF in the future and COJ embraces TOD around planned stations, it will truly be complimentary.

I hope we "get it".

I think the first step would be to get JTA out of the road building business. In my opinion that's a conflict of interest. What incentive do they have to improve their transit system when they can just keep building roads?

[IrvAdams]

If JTA does align with AAF in the future and COJ embraces TOD around planned stations, it will truly be complimentary.

I hope we "get it".

I think the first step would be to get JTA out of the road building business. In my opinion that's a conflict of interest. What incentive do they have to improve their transit system when they can just keep building roads?

JTA builds roads?

[coredumped]

JTA builds roads?

Yep:
http://www.jtafla.com/Projects/showPage.aspx?Sel=185

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think they built most of the overpasses around town (Kernan over Beach, etc).

[tufsu1]

I think the latest plans for the JRTC (which apparently are financially feasible in the next 5 years) will go a long way to facilitating the connections needed to/from intercity rail.  The key is getting AAF and Amtrak to locate at the Prime Osborn.

[thelakelander]

Evidently, it will take about $60 million to bring Amtrak back downtown....

[Ocklawaha]

I think the latest plans for the JRTC (which apparently are financially feasible in the next 5 years) will go a long way to facilitating the connections needed to/from intercity rail.  The key is getting AAF and Amtrak to locate at the Prime Osborn.

Sorry, but the new plans for the JRTC are just as F**ked up as the previous ones. They spun the Greyhound station around and slid the whole mess one block closer to what will be a huge, abandoned, railroad depot-convention center site. RS&H, FDOT or JTA, whoever is responsible for this gigantic 'transit republic' seem to have no concept for a SINGLE - ONE STOP - BUILDING serving as a transportation center. Note that JIA does not have separate terminals for each airline and for the buses and cabs, "all connected with a convenient elevated moving sidewalk."

Since they haven't a clue, neither do our local 'leaders' all of whom seem to have had very little experience using transit in a truly transit friendly city. The JRTC  2.0 is just the latest epic fail in the making.